Just as a triple-digit heat wave was launching itself upon California and the entire Southwestern United States, the Delta Doo Dah cruising rally sailed into Owl Harbor in Isleton to join in that marina's annual Father's Day Weekend BBQ.

Many of the Delta Doo Dah'ers made their way up to the Delta by way of the previous weekend's Delta Ditch Run, a 67.5-mile mad dash from Richmond to Stockton Sailing Club. An exception was Bill and Kathy Crowley's Newport 30, which sailed up from Glen Cove Marina on the Carquinez Strait on Saturday morning. "We slept on the boat and got up at 5:30," they told us. "It took six hours to sail the 33 miles." They'd never been to Owl Harbor before and sailed right by the entrance, then took a wrong turn in Sevenmile Slough. Nevertheless, they made it to the party on time.

John and Doreen Abbott on the Catalina 30 Shellback were among those who enjoyed "amazing sailing" with the Ditch Run. Entered in the Cruising Division, they took not quite 10 hours to sail from Richmond Yacht Club to SSC, "a good indication there was wind the entire way." They planned to spend a few days at Owl Harbor, visit a couple more marinas, and anchor out, then make stops at Pittsburg and Benicia to break up the return trip back to Richmond.

Bill and Kathy Crowley of Erewhon with Leif, who may be a rat terrier or a beagle/Jack Russell mix. All three made new friends at the BBQ.

Doug McDougall, who also came up to the Delta with the Ditch Run, said he planned to keep his Newport 30 Elli in Owl Harbor for a month — but then he won a free one-week stay, the grand prize of the raffle drawing. Latitude 38 also brought Sailaway online sailing simulators to raffle off.

Owl Harbor's harbormaster, Devery Stockon, threw a great party — as usual. Doug McDougall from the Newport 30 Elli is a Division of Boating and Waterways Dockwalker volunteer and had a Boat Clean and Green table at the event.

Dennis Evans and Debra Baker trailered their Ericson 27 Star Gazer up from Moss Landing and launched at Ladd's Stockton Marina, using Ladd's crane to raise the mast. They spent a night at Owl, then one on the hook behind Decker Island on the Sacramento River before returning to Owl.

Dennis Evans and Debra Baker of Star Gazer found it necessary to escape the heat on Sevenmile Slough by actually being in Sevenmile Slough. The water's not clear but it is clean. The water temperature was a bit chilly (snowmelt) at the beginning of the weekend; by Sunday evening it had warmed considerably.

Although the official Delta Doo Dah itinerary has wrapped up, there's an entire summer ahead of us, and free entry is still open for do-it-yourselfers. If you're in the Delta and want to join a Summer Sailstice event, we recommend Stockton Sailing Club's Summer Sailstice Poker Run tomorrow. The sailboat with the best five-card poker hand will win a treasure chest full of gold doubloons valued at $75. There's no charge to enter.

- latitude / chris

TGIF Racing at SBYC

Joel Krauska sent in some shots of another magical evening sailing the South Beach Yacht Club Friday Night Series. And, TGIF, it's Friday again! If you work in the city and have to commute home anywhere after work for a few hours sailing, we think enjoying SBYC's hospitality would be a much better way to end the week, start the weekend, and make for an easy, traffic-free trip home.

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No Way to Reason with Hurricane Season

June 23, 2017
– Eastern Caribbean

While in the Caribbean this spring, we spoke with friends about their plans for how to deal with the July-to-December tropical-cyclone season in the Eastern Caribbean.

Bill Lilly of the Newport Beach-based Lagoon 470 Moontide decided that he'd go with the consensus advice and head south to Grenada. That's not quite as far south as Trinidad & Tobago, but it's to the south of the hurricane belt.

Bill Lilly with his Lagoon 47 at Jolly Harbour, Antigua, a few months ago.

Matt and Christine MItchell on the Austin-based Catana 47 Sugar Shack decided they'd play it safer, by going to Curaçao. Heck, that ABC island only gets hit about once every 28 years.

So what happens? Along comes Tropical Storm Brett, just the second storm of the Atlantic/Caribbean season. And it heads right for Grenada.

Bill Lilly dug Moontide in well at the south end of Grenada, but, lucky for him, Brett went even farther south. So while he got some gusts in the low 30s and torrential rain, it was no big deal. Trinidad, which gets hit even less often than Grenada, took a bit of a beating however, with moderate damage and the airport getting closed down. Even Venezuela, which already has way too many problems, suffered some damage.

Then Brett continued on to give 'once-in-every-28-years' Curaçao a bit of a beating. Christine Mitchell said it could have been a lot worse, as the wind didn't get much over 40, but still, it wasn't what they had signed up for. Neither was all the rain.

Christine Mitchell, right, of Sugar Shack, in St. Barth with Annie Gardner of the Catana 47 El Gato.

As for the Eastern Pacific aka Mexican hurricane season, it's been off to a bit of a slow start. Three mild tropical storms formed way to the south and either fizzled or went inland without much damage.

So far so good, but the big tropical storm months — August, September and October — are still ahead in both areas.